Masada

Masada is a mountain in the Judean desert, near the Dead Sea. Across the Dead Sea are the mountains of Moab, in present day Jordan. In 30 BC Herod built an amazing palace and fortress up on Masada's flat top; around 66 AD Jewish rebels took it over from the Romans. In a few years, about 900 people, rebels and their families, occupied the site. The rebellion in Jerusalem was crushed in 70 AD, but the rebels held out for three more years on top of Masada. Eventually, the Romans assembled a huge army down below, gradually built a massive siege ramp up toward the summit, and broke through. As the story goes, the night before Masada fell, the rebels and their families decided on a mass suicide, rather than being executed and having their families taken into Roman slavery. The ancient historian Josephus recounts the story (not all present day historians agree on the details). Modern Israelis see the site as a heroic symbol of Jewish resistance.

Our group took the cable car to the top. The site is huge, with significant remnants of walls, cisterns, baths, and even the synagogue site (the picture above of the pillars and our guide is the synagogue, obviously now open air, and still used today by Israelis on special occasions). The views of the Judean desert and the Dead Sea are amazing.

From there we went on to swim (float) in the Dead Sea and visit the Qumran area, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls (see pictures on the side).